“Don’t look, babe,” Cora said. “Fucking don’t look.”
My heart ached, and my soul burned with the need for justice.
“Fee,” Azazel squeezed my hand. “Your eyes.”
The righteous blaze. Shit.
“Rein it in,” Samael ordered
Cora cupped my face. “Breathe.”
I took deep breaths to calm myself, and the burn in my chest retreated. I’d explained about the new power I’d somehow accessed while in the pit. Samael’s righteous blaze would need some managing. My body wasn’t strong enough to utilize it without serious consequences. Heck, it would probably kill me.
“That’s it,” Cora said. “You’re good. Eyes all back to normal.”
Thank god. I focused on the market square, keeping my attention off the ground and the bodies. The Tavern we needed was directly opposite us. The coast was clear, but we couldn’t take any chances. We skirted the square, building-hopping and staying in the shadows cast by awnings or those gathered between the battered buildings. There wasn’t a soul about. The citizens had gone into hiding.
Mammon had struck a mighty blow, and it would take much diligence to gain the trust of these people.
His greed made him rash and foolish, and although the Keep was a nexus, a seat of power was only as strong as those who supported it, and now… Now he would have to fight for the people’s love.
After long, tense minutes we finally made it into the tavern. Broken tables and chairs were scattered across the scuffed wooden floor. Pools of ale and blood sat side by side as if comparing consistency.
The air reeked of death, an acrid scent that bit at the back of my nose.
Hunter and Grayson watched the entrance while Mal, Keon and Azazel split up to scout the place. There were back in minutes.
“It’s clear,” Azazel said.
“And the access to the sewers?” Samael asked Mal.
“The basement,” Mal said. “Clear too. Once the others get here we can leave.”
Samael nodded. “Good. So now we wait.”
Conah picked up an undamaged stool and set it upright beside Lilith.
She smiled graciously at him and parked her butt.
Her gaze slid my way. “It seems that the Seraphim don’t want to be pardoned. They probably want vengeance.” Her eyes glittered with malicious intent, and my stomach tightened with another wave of foreboding.
What the fuck was her problem? “Are you threatening them?”
She shrugged.
Hell no. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough to them? They have a right to hate you. They have every right not to want to help.” My voice rose with building anger. “There was no need for you to massacre them.”
“Seraphina!” Samael snapped. “You must not speak to your queen that way.”
Cora’s snort echoed my derision.
I glared up at Samael. “You condone her actions? You condone mass murder in the name of insecurity?” I shook my head in disgust. “If that’s the case then we’re not as alike as you think.”
The corners of Samael’s mouth dimpled. “I do not condone mass murder.”
Lilith’s shot him a sharp glance. “They were His eyes. His. They didn’t belong in our world.”
Samael pinched the bridge of his nose. “And yet we used them when we needed them. We signed a treaty, and we permitted them to reside in the circles. They served a purpose.”
“And then they didn’t, and he didn’t want them back. Why do you think that was, hmm? So, he could have spies amongst us.” Her jaw jutted stubbornly.
God, she was paranoid. “He didn’t want them back because they were tainted from being in the Underealm for too long.” I wanted to add, you idiot, but bit that back. I mean she was my queen, after all. “Your paranoia and insecurity cost too many lives. You could have embraced them and given them a new purpose. They could have been a formidable army for the Underealm.”
“Yes,” Samael said. “That’s what I would have done.”
Our gazes locked and an understanding passed between us. We were alike. Justice, morality, the scales. It was how our minds operated.
Lilith made a small sound of protest. “You agree with her?”
Samael sighed and stroked her hair. “I believe you were overwhelmed. I was an absent partner, and you were forced to make many difficult decisions alone.”
In other words, you fucked up bitch.
And yeah, from her expression I could see she’d gotten the message. Satisfaction and pride bloomed in my chest.
I was Samael’s daughter.
“We have incoming,” Grayson said. He pulled open the doors to admit one of our troops.
Okay. One down, four to go.
I mean, I knew sewers literally carried all kinds of shit, but I didn’t expect it to smell so fucking bad.
Lilith and Samael were behind us. She had a scented handkerchief over the lower half of her face. Bitch had come prepared. Keon was right behind his queen, cat eyes glowing eerily in the gloom. The lanterns we’d brought didn’t do much to dispel the darkness, it was almost as if the darkness was eating the light.
Mal made up the lead, being the only one of us who knew the route. Azazel and Conah trawled behind with Hunter and Grayson walking in front of Cora and me.
Our boots sloshed in the four-inches of waste that hugged the bottom of the pipe.
“We’re walking in other people’s shit,” Cora said nasally. She had her nose pinched between forefinger and thumb. “I wish I had the power to switch off my sense of smell.”
“Breathe through your mouth,” Conah advised.
“I am, and that’s all kinds of gross,” she said. “Did you know there are actual shit particles in the air right now. We’re breathing them in.”
Oh yuk. “Cora, babe, no. Just no.”
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” she said.
“We’re almost there,” Mal said from up ahead.
“How are you not affected?” Cora asked.
Mal shrugged. “I can switch off my sense of smell.”
“Bastard,” Cora muttered.
Grayson chuckled then gagged. “Fucking Loup senses.”
“Turn up ahead,” Mal called back. “Left. Take a left.”
Lanterns swayed as we turned.
“Take a left,” Samael ordered the troops at our back, and the message was passed down the line.
The procession slowed.
“This is it,” Mal said.
Azazel and Conah parted to let me through. Cora raised the lantern she was holding to illuminate the door better.
A blue rusty door.
Mal pressed his hand to the metal and a sense of déjà vu washed over me.
Weird.
And then the door swung open with a soft whine.
We were in.
The Keep was shrouded in a silence so deep the wrongness of it resonated in my bones. It was the calm before the rage of a storm, the silence before an ambush, and my instincts went instantly into high alert.
“Something’s wrong,” Cora said, echoing my thoughts.
We came up into the kitchens—an epic room filled with stoves and long wooden tables and so many pots and pans it made my eyes ache to look at the shiny copper.